Endeavour’s Final Final Flight

Nasa’s fifth and final Space Shuttle, Endeavour, following in the footsteps of Discovery, undertook a farewell fly-over yesterday atop a modified 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft over numerous west coast landmarks including the shuttle’s future home, the California Science Center.  Here it is flying over the Reliant Stadium and the Astrodome in Houston [Image credit: Nasa]. As the JPL press release said Endeavour holds a special place in the hearts of many at JPL. After all, this is the shuttle orbiter that JPLers have had …

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Opportunity at Endeavour

Last seen, on Slugger, at the edge of the football-field sized crater Santa Maria, Nasa’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has arrived at its next destination – the 22km wide crater Endeavour.  3 years and 13 miles from its first destination, Victoria crater. [Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/ASU] A portion of the west rim of Endeavour crater sweeps southward in this color view from NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. This crater — with a diameter of about 14 miles (22 kilometers) — is more …

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Endeavour’s last visit to the International Space Station

The BBC flagged up the stunning first-ever detailed image of a Space Shuttle docked at the International Space Station – Endeavour’s final voyage.  Now NasaTV have released the video.  The video was shot by European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli from the Russian Soyuz spacecraft that undocked from the station on May 23. He, Russian cosmonaut Dmitry Kondratyev and NASA astronaut Cady Coleman were departing the station for a return to Earth after five months on the station. Nespoli documented the …

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Endeavour’s Final Voyage – Redux

The scheduled April launch was scrubbed due to technical problems, but the final preparations are underway for the 25th and final launch, after 19 years in service, of the Space Shuttle Endeavour on Mission STS-134.  Launch is scheduled for 1.56pm [BST].  Via the NASAKennedy channel And a reminder that Endeavour’s final cargo, for the International Space Station, includes a 7-tonne particle physics experiment – the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS).  And the AMS channel provides this informative Nasa overview of the experiment. As usual, there’s the launch blog …

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Endeavour’s Final Voyage

Following the final flight of Discovery, the next Nasa Space Shuttle to be retired, after 19 years of service, will be Endeavour. But first there’s the not insignificant matter of its 25th, and final, flight – Mission STS-134.  Lift-off is scheduled for 1547 local time (1947 GMT; 2047 BST) from the Kennedy Space Centre.  And via the NASAKennedy channel Endeavour’s final cargo, for the International Space Station, includes a 7-tonne particle physics experiment – the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS).  And the AMS channel …

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